Top Stories

Bill C-51 Might Be Passed Next Week

The controversial bill c-51 is expected to make its last rounds through the House of Commons this week, with a Report Stage debate on it scheduled for Monday. It should also see a vote to move it to a Third Reading on Monday evening, along with a Third Reading debate on Tuesday, and the final Commons vote could occur as early as Tuesday evening next week. As more people continue to learn about the bill, survey's have shown an increasingly rapid decline for its support. It's hoped by many that for the sake of our civil liberties and the integrity of our legal system, that this bill does not see implementation in our daily lives here in Canada. Unfortunately, Harper and his administration do hold a majority and they may use that to push through this bill regardless of how many people would like to see otherwise.

Who doesn't support c-51? Well, the list continues to grow. Thus far, at least 106 law professors from across the country have declared their discontent with the bill, along with the Canadian Bar Association. At least 28 leading businesses have also called for an end to the bill, among them are Mozilla Foundation (Firefox), Tucows & Shopify, and others. At least 22 influential citizens, including former Prime Ministers, Supreme Court Judges, Public Safety & Justice Ministers, and more. So far, 12 privacy commissioners across Canada have come out against it, along with various civil liberties and human rights groups: Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, OpenMedia, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, Amnesty International National Council of Canadian Muslims, BC Freedom of Information & Privacy Association, and many more. Most importantly, have been the hundreds of thousands of Canadians across the country who have taken to the streets in the past several months to protest the bill c-51 and have pushed this issue into the spotlight so that more people can find out about what is happening to their country.

There is still time for those who want to contact their MP, to apply pressure so that they disregard this bill, to do that before the final debate next week. The passage of this bill will directly erode due process of law in this country; initiating a broad attack on privacy and civil liberties. These are rights that always need to be protected for every single Canadian, and it's baffling that any representative would think otherwise. They want to say that they are justified in violating rights because of “terrorism,” but the threat of terrorism is not pressing enough to warrant this kind of broad violation to our liberties. This is a notion which has been reaffirmed by dozens of legal professionals across the country. There is no benefit to Canadians with the passage of bill c-51.